Janison is a wholly Australian owned company based in Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia specialising in the development of cutting-edge learning solutions.

22 February 2016

To build capability in your business you need to start by thinking like an Architect.

What are the five questions you need to think about in the Architect phase..

What foundational skills will help you win in the 21st Century?

We are finding the ways to build the skills in the video below are always changing. People now want to take control of their own learning and be more “self-directed”.

We are seeing the best organisations use technology to provide a combination of Push, Pull and Peer learning.

What learning will you push?

Push learning is driven by the organisation (probably you) and typically involves competency frameworks, training needs analysis, development plans, formal training programs and a calendar of interventions all aimed at building organisational capability. To provide greater reach and make this cost effective, organisations are using e-learning, learning portals, webinars and virtual classrooms to push learning in a digital form.

What are you doing to enable pull learning?

Pull learning enables individuals to access courses, content and catalogues which they can “draw on” as required and on demand. To be a better alternative than Google, organisations are curating the very best content and making sure it is digestible, bite size and available 24 x 7. The mission here is to make it easy and fast. Filtering, searching, ratings, tags are all part of the armoury to make the right learning easy to find for the time poor learner in the 21st Century, who is no doubt on the go.

How are you facilitating peer learning?

Peer learning is the big sleeper and potentially the most powerful way to learn 21st Century skills. Learn from each other. Social learning is the new buzz. Organisations are providing the technology so learners can create communities of practice, can recommend and share, can discuss and can find expertise across the business. Tools like Yammer and LinkedIn are being embraced as part of the learning ecosystem and traditional hierarchies and structure cast aside as we lean on more organic development.

How are you integrating?

As an Architect you rarely have a “greenfields” site and need to design a solution which fits in with the existing environment. You have the same challenges in your organisation with an existing culture, traditional learning programs, performance management processes, assessment tools, existing technologies and systems.

We recommend you think like an architect and focus on answering these 5 questions to let the three forces of push, pull and peer provide the energy and momentum to build the skills needed for you to succeed in the 21st Century.

05 February 2016

The last piece in the 21st century skills puzzle

School curricula of the past have focused on classic disciplines; algebra, history, chemistry, geography. While these have merit, there is a change in the education zeitgeist; a focus on 21st century skills.

In 2012, a study called ATC21S identified 10 skills that people will need to master to be successful in today’s world.

The global arms race begins…

These skills were not traditionally a focus in schools, however that is changing. Curricula and learning content are already addressing these areas.

Singapore

No-one can deny Singapore’s claim to being a world leader in education. Preceding the ATC21S study by two years, they released a 21st century competencies framework, which had a renewed focus on collaboration and communication. In 2015, they topped the PISA rankings as the overall top ranked country in maths and science for 15 year olds. Combined with innovative initiatives such as migrating their national high-stakes exams to digital online assessment — one of the first in the world to do so — Singapore education is only going from strength to strength. Look for them to incorporate collaborative assessment in the future.

Australia

The Australian curriculum has pivoted to head in this direction too. The skills have been rebranded 21st century general capabilities. As explained in thisreport, the reason was to highlight the fact that ‘the skills are not unique to the 21st century’, however are increasingly important to it.

From the Australian Curriculum website: “ The general capabilities play a significant role in the Australian Curriculum in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.”

Corporate

E-Learning companies are also aligning to this shift in mindset.CrossKnowledge & Janison are building a host of content focused on leadership, management and 21st century skills. Collaborating with thought leaders from faculties such as Harvard, Cambridge, Wharton, London & Paris, content is designed give students and professionals the edge in a competitive digital world.

Wait, how do we assess 21st century skills?

While new learning content is being taught in schools and organisations, another problem has arisen. How do we test how well students are working in a team, or digitally communicating ? Just as traditional subjects are being replaced, so must their assessment methods. The pencil & multiple-choice worksheet is dead.

The future of 21st century skills education lies in digital collaborative assessment.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been a global standard in benchmarking school pupils’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. It also publishes a global leaderboard that can make or break education ministers careers, as they jostle to improve their countries rankings. In 2012, PISA identified the momentum towards 21st century skills, and set out to measure collaboration digitally in 2015. They identified the following three key collaborative assessment problem types.

Key collaborative assessment problem types

Consensus building — the group needs to make a decision after considering the views, opinions, and arguments of different members. Faster isn’t always better here; the quality of the decision may be threatened by ‘group think’ — swift agreement among members without considering the complexities of the problem.

Jigsaw problems — this is a method to insure interdependence among problem-solvers, which is a condition to measure collaboration. Each group member has different information or skills. The group needs to pool the information and recruit each other’s skills in order to achieve the group goal. The group goal cannot be achieved by any one member alone. One social loafer who does nothing can jeopardise the achievement of the group goal.

Negotiations — Group members have different amounts of information and different personal goals. Through negotiation, select information can be passed so that there can be mutual win-win optimisation, which satisfies overall group goals.

The PISA study notes that additional types of collaborative problem solving (CPS) tasks can be appropriate, provided they are time-constrained collaborative activities requiring ground rules for taking actions, as well as the establishment and maintenance of both shared understandings and team organisation. You can download the full draft collaboration assessment framework report here.

Australia, Ireland & Sweden unite!

Extending on the ATC21S findings, the Collaborative Assessment Alliance was formed. The goal was to quantify to what extent 21st century skills such as collaboration and communication could be assessed digitally. This was done by collaborative problem solving tasks, conducting school trials, psychometrically analysing results and collaborating on findings. The group was made up of:

The findings of this group are yet to be published, however early results are fascinating. School trials with just over 2000 participating students produced a staggering million rows of data. Every click, action, word, response and more was being logged in the background. If you are fond of playing with big data, this is the area is for you. Can you imagine the volume when delivered at a national level?

Future state

So, what does it all mean? Leading countries are already pushing towards new 21st century curricula, and the adoption by PISA of collaborative testing will be a rocket-boost. Educators that stand still are now at risk of falling behind the world pack; surely a career-limiting move.

Those who can master collaborative assessment will become education royalty. Their graduates will be better equipped with tangible, real world skills to lead us into the future. Are you going to be part of the new Kingdom?

12 June 2015

For most of us, the notion of data storage is somewhat a distant and ‘cloudy’ concept (pun intended). In other words, we don’t really need to give it much thought because we don’t have to deal with it at all. Well, maybe only when we’re prompted to backup our iTunes purchases!

However, for those responsible for managing data within their workplace it’s pretty big business and a major consideration. Human resources is a sector that springs to mind when thinking about instances where the secure management and storage of data is paramount. Online learning is another area where data security is key.

Janison offers Software as a Service via its Cloud Learning System (CLS). As we have an international client-base, it’s our responsibility to protect clients’ data wherever they’re located.

Security is not the only concern; the volume of data matters. It’s difficult to visualise data in terms of size or volume, so the following example should help. One of our Australian clients has 500,000 users (learners) of the CLS – this translates to 500,000 user profiles which includes their name, address, DOB, password, gender and more – and this is just the information required to register for online access.

Once inside the CLS, the amount of data increases exponentially. Enrolments, progress records, discussion forums, requests for Manager approval; all these data objects add up. It extends to innumerable rows of data, billions of rows in fact. And all of this information requires 24/7 access, storage and protection.

Thus the safe storage and fast delivery of data is treated as a core function of our business model. Which is why Janison opted to partner with Microsoft Azure, a partnership that was forged at the very beginning of Azure’s Australian journey. In 2014, Janison was chosen as Microsoft Australia’s launch partner for the Azure Cloud Platform.

Aside from the indelibility of the brand and the confidence it gives the customer (us and you), Azure as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)are possibly Microsoft’s most important contributions to fenceless, secure and scalable technology.

Azure uses a software-defined infrastructure model, where resilient software can instantly migrate workloads to alternate servers or even different datacenters. This global footprint enables multinational organisations to store sovereign data in the country they’re operating from, while making it available across the board.

Thanks to Azure, Microsoft can deploy fast security updates, be instantly responsive to data attacks and closely monitor privacy. All data that moves between Azure and the customer is encrypted en-route. Microsoft Azure is present in Microsoft’s aim is to protect its customers and their data.

Based on research conducted by Forrester Research in 2014, the estimated growth in data was forecast to be between 25 to 50 per cent year on year. Following are some interesting facts it uncovered about data and storage:

- 67 per cent of tech organisations surveyed plan to outsource their datacentre in the future.

- Datacentre budgets will grow year on year with most organisations surveyed stating the expected increase would be between 5 to 10 per cent.

- In Europe the biggest factor determining selection of a datacentre was ‘disaster resistance’.

- The majority of respondents said they would opt for a locally-based facility.

- Forty-eight percent of respondents cited storage growth as a top driver for expanding their datacentre capacity.

Janison continues to harness the security and scalability offered by Microsoft Azure datacentres for the benefit of its learning and assessment clients around the world. Click here to read the ‘Janison Microsoft Azure Partner Launch’ backstory.

26 May 2015

One of Janison’s longest-serving business partners – Canopi – recently recorded signing up its 500,000 elearning user, a significant achievement and one certainly worth noting.

Canopi is an Australian elearning specialist that’s been offering LMS hosting (using Janison’s LMS and Cloud Learning System or CLS) and content development solutions for 15 years.

In light of the half-million milestone, I asked company director Greg Mcloughlin-Wilden a few questions about the secrets of his company’s success in a very competitive market.

VL: So Greg I’m curious, who are these 500k users… and where do they come from?

Greg: By far the biggest slice is from the sporting industry, and among these users the majority are community coaches. Community coaches are mums and dads who put up their hands to coach a local team. We also have a large number of athletes, teachers, real estate agents, biologists and veterinarians.

Greg: Taking a really keen interest in who they are and what they want to achieve. Our sole purpose is help them achieve their organisational goals. If you’re not connected to that then you’re just another vendor flogging a product.

VL: What lessons has Canopi learnt along the way regarding e-learning?

Greg: Strong business relationships and people with vision are the key to success. These are the people who build the content and technology that our customers value so much. Fostering creativity is also really high on the list. Whether you’re planning a video shoot, writing a storyboard or cutting some code you are being creative. These are creative pursuits based on a vision of what we want it to be at the end. Without creative people it’s really easy to miss the mark.

VL: Looking at current industry trends, where does Canopi see e-learning going/evolving?

Greg: I think the idea of a system, course, modules and test has plateaued a bit and we should all capitalise on this stable operating environment over the next 2 -3 years. Of course we’ll keep adding more features for the benefit of clients during this time, but we can use this period to increase our customer base. The next big thing for us during this period is integrating the learning platform (CLS) with external organisational systems. After that… well that’s the stuff we dream about. Read Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age for a peak (wink wink).

VL: Are there any memorable challenges that Canopi has overcome to be where it is today?

Greg: Oh yes. Using the previous generation of LMS's was the most stressful period for the company. You would find that if you were editing a bit of code over here, then something would break over there etc. The current generation of systems like Janison’s CLS have taken a huge amount of anxiety out of operating a learning management system. I also think trying to find the balance between a client’s dream and their budget is always hard and probably always will be, but it’s still a huge amount of fun to be involved in that process.

VL: What would you say Canopi’s core strength is?

Greg: Our charter is to share our clients’ visions.

VL: How does Canopi envision reaching 1 million users and when?

Greg: We’ll do that mainly through sports, by helping our existing customers get more out of the platform, and by adding new customers. As to when, probably late 2017 (watch this space).

Background: Janison has spent 18 years nurturing its partner network with the aim of improving the strategic approach to online learning and assessment by making the best possible tools and technologies available to our partner’s clients.

A partnership with Janison enables companies to generate new business and increase revenue opportunities by completing their portfolio of elearning services. When you become a partner with Janison you:

- Sign-up with a technology partner where all the development is done in Australia.

- Get to contribute to Janison’s road map.

- Get easy access to support. Help is always on-hand, and the door is always open!

24 April 2015

Property is big business, not just in Australia, but in most countries around the world. And it makes sense really, humans have only a few requirements to ensure the survival of our species and that is water, food, sunlight and shelter. There are more I haven’t mentioned, but you get the gist.

This obvious truth makes the business of property – or real estate – a big deal that touches all of us in some way. In Australia you either board, rent or own, or ‘rent to own’ which is an evolving trend. And from this premise, most of us would have a ‘real estate agent’ story to tell, or two… or many!

Here are some questions to consider:

Who protects us in this high stakes game of bricks and mortar?

What measures exist to ensure property managers don’t kick tenants out of rentals for no legitimate reason?

Who determines the code of ethics in real estate?

What stops a sales agent from selling your investment to a mate on the cheap?

The answer to these questions is simple… the law does, with assistance from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA). One of the functions of the REIA is to help develop guidelines and set education standards for national training packages that teach practitioners entering the real estate industry.

For real estate agents in Australia, the Real Estate Institute of Australia and all of its branch subsidiaries is the leading national professional association for the real estate sector. Its job is to advise, lobby, monitor and educate stakeholders about commercial and residential property markets in Australia.

According to the Real Estate Institute NSW (REINSW), it’s the ‘largest and most influential association of real estate professionals in NSW’. And how does REINSW act to maintain the integrity of the real estate industry in NSW? Well it does it in many ways, one way is through training.

Accredited training of practitioners ensures a ‘best practice’ standard competency and assumed level of knowledge for those wanting to become real estate salespeople. In 2014, REINSW implemented Janison’s Cloud Learning System (CLS) using courseware developed by Canopi as its new eLearning platform for the Certificate of Registration.

The four units of competency offered online are mandated by industry regulator NSW Fair Trading for entry into the real estate profession. Offering these units in an online capacity means that students can instantly enroll, pay, access and manage their learning autonomously.

There are a multitude of benefits to registered training organisations offering online learning and assessment, particularly for industries with large numbers of members scattered across different states and territories. It also gives people living in rural and remote areas the same level of access to training without being limited by location.

It’s a good feeling knowing that groups like REINSW are keeping pace with advancements in technology, particularly in the learning and assessment space. By doing this it’s creating a more equitable and accessible system for learning, ensuring best practice can be delivered at all times to everyone.

31 March 2015

Janison is always looking at new ways we can add value to the online learning and assessment space. One of the great things about going digital is the fresh new ways of engaging your Users. In version 1503 of the CLS – soon to be released - we've introduced new Question Types for Assessment Modules. NOTE all of the below can all be automatically marked, saving you time.

Gap Match Interaction

A Gap Match Interaction asks the student to drag text or images from a source list into gaps within the interaction body. Students can swap labels in and out until they are satisfied and submit their answer.

Hotspot Interaction

A Hotspot Interaction asks a student to select one or more areas (or hotspots) on an image. These hotspots are visible to the student during the test and they are highlighted when the student selects them.

You might create a hotspot question if you wanted students to choose from options that were physically spaced from each other (for example, if you wanted students to select from a range of options on a map).

Graphic Gap Match Interaction

An Graphic Gap Match Interaction is one of the most versatile interactions as it allows gaps (or 'hotspots') to be defined on an image (as opposed to text), and a set of source text/images to be dragged into the gaps.

Graphic Order Interaction

A Graphic Order Interaction question requires a student to drag numbers onto defined and visible hotspots on an image to indicate the correct order. The creation of this question is very similar to a hotspot question. The main difference is that instead of defining which hotspots are correct, the order of the hotspots is assessed.

Slider Interaction

A Slider Interaction requires students to choose a correct value by dragging a slider to the correct position. Students will be presented with a control for selecting a numerical value between a lower and upper bound.

This question type has the advantage of being able to create defined numerical steps and of limiting student responses to be between boundary values.

We hope Item Authors will have a lot of fun coming up with interesting ways of using the above interactions.

24 March 2015

In version 1503, the Janison CLS will be equipped with Responsive UI… which means users can now access their learning and training from any device, on any browser using any operating system.

Which means better functionality and usability!

Below you can see an example of the new-look ‘Self Registration’ page. The fields fit nicely as appropriate to the User's screen, you will notice the background image has been disabled on smaller devices to improve performance.

As CLS administrators using a large desktop, you'll find the responsive UI allows you to see more data at once. Here is a quick view of the older, non-responsive UI when using Customisable Reports (note the dead-zones):

Here is the new look reports, which allows more columns on screen at once:

Other UI enhancements can be seen throughout the CLS, such as new look buttons, controls and mobile-friendly menus.

17 March 2015

Learning Plans are becoming an increasingly important feature of learning management systems. So what are Learning Plans in a nutshell? It is a digital document that records:

Career and professional goals

Learning objectives of an individual

Planned activities to meet these learning objectives

Competency standards to which those learning objectives relate

Target and achieved dates for learning objectives

A Learning Plan is a living document that is updated by the Learner as their needs change and as opportunities for training and development emerge. It gives Learners a vision of what they want to achieve and how to track it.

In the Janison CLS, this is an overview of how we’ve implemented Learning Plans for a Learner in four easy steps:

Step 1 - Learner launches their Learning Plan

This can be done from the My Learning Dashboard when a Learner is enrolled in a given Learning Plan.

Step 2 - Learner enters Learning Plan Entries

Catalogue Items can be searched for that match their Learning Objectives or can be added later as they come available.

Step 3 - Learner records results and completed dates:

Adding a completed date sets the status of a Learning Plan entry to 'Completed'.

The above is just a teaser. There are loads of extra features under the hood including templates for groups of Users, multiple plans running simultaneously, strong tie-ins to the Janison CPD feature set and more. There are also future enhancements such as E-Portfolios and manager approval workflows.

10 March 2015

Cast your mind back to around 2008’ish… this was a time when Australia started to catch ‘solar fever’. Throughout the following years - State by State – households, schools and businesses jumped on the feed-in tariff bandwagon and put solar panels on roofs and claimed incentives on offer.

The solar charge that swept through the nation for the next five or so years was a seismic shift in terms of how many Australians consumed energy. Surprisingly, the switch to a greener form of electricity seemed to have little to do with environmentalism.

The main motivation was a cornucopia of State and Federal Government grants and rebates being handed out, and the promise of cheaper electricity bills. Regardless of the reason behind the adoption of solar power in Australia, it was a quantum leap for renewable energy.

Solar energy is now a regular source of ‘additional’ power for many dwellings and buildings around the country, and the sight of black paneled roofs is a commonplace feature. Janison joined the renewable fray in July 2013, when it had 84 solar panels installed on the roof of its headquarters in Coffs Harbour.

If you've ever stopped to wonder how efficient solar power really is in terms of cost saving measures, you might be interested in these statistics. For the 2014 calendar year, Janison’s solar panels produced 35,010 kilowatts of energy. Of that energy, the building consumed 87.3 per cent and exported 12.7 per cent back to the grid.

In simpler terms, the solar system provides the business with 1/3 of its annual energy requirements and will have paid for itself in less than four years. Which, according to Geoff Tosio, Renewable Energy Consultant at Bellingen Solar Depot, is a fantastic result.

“In early 2013 we approached Janison about a solar project for the Coffs Harbour office and were impressed by the CEO’s technical knowledge of solar products and his desire to make a difference regarding the company’s carbon footprint and educating staff about energy efficiency measures,” Mr Tosio said.

“After a year and a half the system is performing well and providing a fast return on Janison’s investment.”

18 February 2015

Close the Gap first came into the consciousness of non-Indigenous Australians in 2008 when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) set six ambitious targets to address the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians in life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment.

Closing the Gap would go on to become a long-term strategy committing the Commonwealth, States and Territories to unprecedented levels of investment to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage. One organisation that quickly mobilised as a result of the Close the Gap initiative was the Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC).

RAHC was established in October 2008, and its job was to “address persistent challenges to accessing primary healthcare services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in the Northern Territory”. To do this, RAHC set about recruiting, culturally orientating and deploying urban-based health professionals (HPs) across remote Indigenous communities.

The types of HPs participating in the scheme included general practitioners, registered nurses and midwives, dental health and allied health professionals. RAHC would then provide ongoing support and training to successfully assist HPs to make the transition into remote practice. The training consisted of elearning modules designed to give an overview of health issues prevalent to the remote health context.

The free online clinical training – using Janison’s LMS – was developed as a resource to provide timely, high quality, orientation and learning materials to anyone interested in remote and Indigenous health. Since December 2008, RAHC has placed more than 600 HPs in almost 2,000 placements. This represents more than 170 man years of healthcare to the Territory. And as of 24 February 2015 (next week), the organisation will celebrate its 3000th placement!

Here are some facts about the health outlook for Indigenous Australians (as provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare):

Twice as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants are born of low birthweight as non-Indigenous infants. However, between 2000 and 2011, there was a statistically significant decrease in the low birthweight rate among liveborn singleton babies of Indigenous mothers, with the rate declining by 9 per cent over the period (or by 0.1 low birthweight babies per 100 live births annually).

Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy of around 10 years less than non-Indigenous Australians. In 2010–2012, the estimated life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was 69.1 years, and 73.7 years for females. This was 10.6 and 9.5 years lower than the life expectancy of non-Indigenous males and females respectively.

Chronic diseases are main contributors to the mortality ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. However, between 2001 and 2012, there were significant declines in Indigenous mortality rates for circulatory diseases for both males and females (declines of 30 per cent and 29 per cent respectively) and for respiratory diseases for Indigenous males (32 per cent). These declines were greater than those observed for the non-Indigenous population.

Fewer than 1 in 4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (21.5%) had a health check billed to Medicare in the 2013-14 financial year. Indigenous people experience a general pattern of worsening access to GPs relative to need with increasing remoteness. This is attributed to relatively poor access to GPs and relatively high predicted need for primary health care in more remote areas.

With the ongoing assistance and dedication of Governments, organisations like RAHC and individuals, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is steadily closing.